The fact that the Cardinals remain a top-5 attendance team in one of baseball’s smallest market is a testament to the fan loyalty they’ve cultivated. But things are a tad off this year: Rick Hummel reports that the Cardinals are down 2,843 fans a game. No big worries given that they’ll still be over three million, but it’s worth noting I suppose.

And really, my excuse for posting this is really to make people go read the discussion about it over at Baseball Think Factory. Based on an early comment the conversation moves to trying to identify which cities, if any, are unequivocal baseball towns as opposed to football towns or towns of other sports.

The verdict so far: only St. Louis, New York and Boston are baseball towns, and down the thread some people make the argument that even New York can’t claim that as clearly as you’d think. It’s more a town for winners — making it an all-sports town — than just baseball. It’s just that baseball has been where the winning has been.

It certainly applies to St. Louis, though. Not sure that it applies in many other places, if at all. Even the worst football teams seem to capture more municipal fascination than do good baseball teams, almost everywhere.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Angels will acquire second baseman Ian Kinsler from the Tigers. It is not known yet what the Tigers will receive in return. Kinsler had to waive his no-trade clause in order for the deal to happen.

Kinsler, 35, hit .236/.313/.412 with 22 home runs, 52 RBI, 90 runs scored, and 14 stolen bases in 613 plate appearances for the Tigers this past season. He’s in the final year of his contract and will earn $10 million for the 2018 season.

The Angels were certainly looking to upgrade at second base and did so with Kinsler. They were also reportedly interested in Cesar Hernandez of the Phillies.